Parliament up for Internet Villain award

Digital Economy Bill debacle wins ISPA nod

The UK's Internet Service Provider Association has named its 2010 Internet Hero and Internet Villain award nominations, and not surprisingly the Digital Economy Act dominates.

Parliament itself is among the five Internet Villain nominations, "for allowing the Digital Economy Bill to pass through the Commons without proper debate."

DEA architect Lord Mandelson also gets a nod, as does Lord Clement-Jones, who introduced Bill amendments enabling web censorship on copyright grounds.

ACS Law, the ambulance-chasing legal vultures who send demands for money to people they believe have been pirating material on peer-to-peer networks, also gets nominated for the Villain award.

On the Hero side, Liberal Democrat blogger Bridget Fox is recognised for "organising a grass roots challenge" to the Bill alongside Tom Watson, the MP who went against the Labour whip to vocally oppose it in the Commons.

The Government does not get an entirely bad rap, however. Data.gov.uk is up for the Internet Hero award for opening up government data for public use.

The winners are selected by the ISPA Council, and the awards will be handed out at a ceremony in London a month from now.

The full list of nominees can be found at the ISPA web site.